The marriage between the two sides is as awkward as can possibly be, and while there are certainly some lyrical gems from Reed (I admit thinking that “I wish that I could kill you but I too love your eyes” is a really inspired line) and some snippets of potential goodness from the band (the beginning riff of “Frustration” is a good one, and there are parts of “Pumping Blood” that I wish could be transplanted elsewhere), the overall effect is abysmal. The band basically disappears for most of the last track, the 19:29 (!!) “Junior Dad,” which turns into endlessly droning strings by the end. Funnily enough, I actually think this album could have worked somewhat as either a pure Reed solo effort or in collaboration with a less established, more “indie-ish” band, but as is, it doesn’t work at all.~ METALLICA Lulu (with Lou Reed) music review by tarkus1980
~ Patience Worth: Author From the Great Beyond | Arts & Culture | Smithsonian MagazinePatience appeared on the scene just when spiritualism, enjoying its last great American revival, collided with the age of science, and a brigade of investigators, including magician Harry Houdini, prowled the nation to expose bogus mediums. Since most mediums were women—the spiritualist movement accorded women social status they rarely attained elsewhere—this crusade turned into an epic battle of the sexes: supposed hard-nosed men of science against swooning female seers.
The Patience Worth case remains one of the most tantalizing literary mysteries of the last century, a window onto a vanished era when magic seemed to exist because so many people believed in it. In the decades since Pearl Curran’s death, in 1937, no one has explained how she produced Patience’s writing. Combing through the voluminous archives, however, a modern sensibility starts to see clues and patterns that may not have been apparent at a time when science was just starting to explore the far reaches of the human mind.
Considering Carol is a brief yet insightful look into the sometimes troubled yet often brilliant life of schizophrenic poet come karaoke queen Carol E Kelly.
Considering Carol (via patrick9480)
